What is an iPad game? It's not an easy thing to define.

Since the release of Apple's era-defining tablet last year, game developers have chased it with ferocity, releasing more than 45,000 games so far. These apps run the gamut from casual time-wasters to truly hard-core epics.

With their big, beautiful graphics and the complex control possibilities afforded by the tablet's giant screen, iPad games possess the potential to suck away your time (what smartphones haven't already gobbled up, that is).

Here are Wired.com's reviews of 10 of the biggest, baddest iPad games out there — something for every gamer's taste.

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The iPad version of Dead Space is an entirely new entry in the acclaimed survival-horror franchise. As usual, you play the role of a lone engineer trapped on a deserted space station with no choice but to kill lots of scary monsters.

Dead Space HD nails the look and feel of the console games. Excellent sound design, which allows you to hear every little noise, helps sell the horror. Dark, moody environments brim with little details like flickering lights, although the level design becomes very repetitive as the game unfolds: The rooms feel copy-pasted to the point where I would find myself getting lost.

The game also suffers from a fetish for dropping you in rooms where doors lock and you're forced to fend off waves of monsters. This would be more tolerable if the doors didn't take forever to unlock.

Most iPad games that try to emulate console games end up goofing the controls, but Dead Space HD doesn't. You control your character by sliding a finger along his back; you aim your weapon by moving your finger on the right side of the screen.

It's a smooth implementation — I never found myself doing something I didn't want to, which happens a lot in iPad games.

WIRED Horrifyingly good controls.

TIRED Too many monster closets.

Rating:

$10, Electronic Arts